More about the Lusitania and the book on the disaster featured here last week. A reader in Dublin, who has asked not to be named, has something in her possession directly linked to the sinking, in which 1,198 civilian lives were lost.
The Lusitania was torpedoed off Kinsale 83 years ago. Not long after the survivors were being brought ashore, her grandmother, then a six-year-old girl, was walking near the landing area and picked up a ring. All her life she called it the Lusitania ring.
The belief among the woman's family to this day is that the ring was dropped by one of the survivors. It was a dress ring with rubies and diamonds. Sometimes her grandmother would wear it. After more than eight decades it has now passed into her ownership, although she doesn't wear it.
She made contact simply because she wanted to share her family's story with other people. It
makes one wonder if there are any other memorabilia from the ship, salvaged at the time by beachcombers or people involved in the rescue effort.
Incidentally, the reason the reader is worried about her address or name being used in the paper is because she fears burglars. A sad sign of the times we live in.